


unfulfilled promises and missed chances

by AdmiralKatCornwellfan



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 10:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18547771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdmiralKatCornwellfan/pseuds/AdmiralKatCornwellfan
Summary: Captain Christopher Pike is pleased to see his ship space worthy again. He meets a familiar face at the launching party. And it is high time someone put some sense into him regarding relationship with his first officer. or lack thereof."Love cures people — both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it."-Karl A. Menninger-





	unfulfilled promises and missed chances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IceCream_Junkie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceCream_Junkie/gifts).



> In loving Memory of Admiral Cornwell.  
> We salute you.
> 
> for [es-99-einsteinium](https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/es-99-einsteinium), who gave me the idea to write this and who is my best trekkie friend. I grieve with thee, my friend.

Seeing _Enterprise_ again, space worthy, every rivet and bulkhead polished, corridors gleaming bright, was the best day of Captain Christopher Pike's life. Well, one of the best days actually. He had just arrived at the McKinley Station after a brief delay because of a meeting with his commanding officer at Starfleet HQ. After docking in the shuttle bay, he hurried to join the festivities that had started earlier to celebrate the relaunch of the Enterprise. But he took his time Despite being in a rush he paused briefly to admire his ship, which had taken a rough tumble in the unknown edges of the AQ and yet saved his life and that of his crew multiple times. She was elegant, graceful and eager to leave the drydock, to explore the unknown and to proudly serve them for many years to come.  
  
Gently tapping his fingers against the bulkhead, Pike spoke to his ship. 

''Good to see you again, old girl.'' 

  


The party was in full swing in the officers' mess hall when Chris arrived. He nodded in greeting to junior officers who jumped at the sight of him. Grabbing a drink, he mingled with the crowd, politely smiling and making small talk. Yet, Chris found himself seeking for something he couldn't even describe. His musings were interrupted when he saw one of his old friends in the crowd, and with the grace of a captain, he moved closer to talk to her. 

One of his close friends during his time at the academy, Admiral Katrina Cornwell, was nursing a champagne flute and was mingling with the commanding officers, his Number One close by.  
  
Chris hadn't intended to, but his eyes settled on the elegant yet aloof profile of Number One.  
Many people called her cold, icy or even downright unemotional Vulcan. Yet having served side by side for a long time, he knew her better. From her stance and minute facial expressions he could decipher that she, too, was pleased to see Admiral Cornwell, her former mentor. The colored lights of the mess hall, special fixture for the gathering, painted One's face in many colors but he could see by the tell-tale pinkish tinge of her cheeks that she wanted to get out of here . but However , he knew her better. She wouldn't leave the present company prematurely; even how uncomfortable social gatherings were for her.  
  
Pike observed a change in his first officer’s demeanor as one of the other flag officers joined the conversation. One was quite enthralled by the idea the Tellarite admiral was proposing. Her stance ever so slightly changed, her posture giving away her eagerness only to his watchful eyes.  
Immersed in his contemplation, Chris was unaware that a certain Admiral slowly excused herself from the present company and crept up on him. He almost jumped at the tapping on his shoulder. He quickly turned to see Kat standing there. 

She smiled the Her smile was the same he remembered seeing so long ago for the first time. It was Kat who smiled, genuinely glad seeing her old friend Chris, not Admiral Cornwell, politely greeting Captain Pike. She looked back at the duo that Pike's eyes seemed to be glued on, or rather the only figure who was able to steal his heart and never knew the fact she lost hers in the same process.  
  
Kat cleared her throat and Pike had the dignity to blush and smiled at her, dimples on stun.  
''They don't work on me, I have my own, remember?''  
The admiral flashed a toothy grin towards the decorated Starfleet captain who now looked like a young boy caught with both hands in a candy jar.  
Kat gestured towards the drinks table and Pike, followed her,recognizing it as one of their old gestures they had used at the Academy, followed her, because he knew she need to speak to him in private.

  


The admiral and the captain slowly eased themselves out of the celebration and Pike slowly directed her towards his personal quarters. Once there, he pulled out a single malt whiskey bottle and immersed in his own thoughts, failed to notice the momentary panic in Kat's eyes when she saw the bottle in front of her.  
  
Yet he poured them both a drink and Chris looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell him whatever it was that was on her mind.  
She raised her glass towards him , then gulped down a few sips of her whiskey and told him,  
  
''Cut the bullshit Chris, tell her how you feel before it's too late.'' 

Pike looked at her with a frown on his face but it did not fool her. She had seen the same look on numerous faces and she knew all too well to be deceived by it. She should have been appalled, outraged and maybe taking disciplinary actions as an admiral, but the psychologist and the woman in her didn't care. All she was able to see was the chances missed and she'd be damned if she’d let it happen to her friend.  
  
She gave him 'the eyeroll' and tilted her head a little, sending a knowing glance in his direction. The stoic Captain's mask dropped as a weary sigh escaped from the man behind it.  
''I don't know, Kat.''

''You should Chris. I know she holds a special place in your heart. It doesn’t take a damn Talosian to tell that.'' 

Hearing her words, Pike swiftly turned towards his friend who was leaning against the table, the light of the Earth’s moon from the viewport reflecting against the silver in his hair. His quick reaction hiding the shiver that ran through his spine at the mere mention of Talosians. He never liked them, and still after years of that encounter, he could not get the uncomfortable feeling out of his head whenever his mind decided to go a trip down a memory lane. 

''How?'' he questioned her with a level of uncertainty in his voice.

''It doesn’t matter. Just do it, Chris. I know you won't regret it and neither will she.''  
He looked quizzically at his friend, as Kat leaned against the table towards him.

“ Love is a choice. And one doesn't just make that choice once”. Pike recognized the slight change in her demeanor when she spoke, and he knew what, or specifically whom she was talking about.  
"My story ended a long time ago. but that is not how your story ends." Kat suddenly looked away, unsure of how to meet his eyes, knowing Chris knew about her and Gabriel.  
“And Chris" She lifted her head to meet his eyes and held his gaze, blue eyes locked with her green ones.  
  
"whatever your path maybe, you can handle it".  
  
With it, she downed the remaining liquor in her tumbler, set it on the table and walked out of the captain’s quarters back to the festivities, leaving behind a Captain who was puzzled by her behavior. 

  


Kat felt older, older than her real age. Chris was just two years her junior, same academic year as Gabriel and Phillipa but he was always like the pesky little brother she wished she never had, but also couldn't imagine never knowing.  
When seeing her own protege blushing under the intense stare of her commanding -officer-turned-lover and the dimples working overtime on Pike's face, she remembered a commander and captain, like this, at another Starfleet function years ago , forgetting the world around them. The world that was theirs was the only one that mattered. It felt like it was eons ago since she was that captain without the weight of the Federation on her shoulders and her Gabriel was the cocky, yet hard working, ambitious commander.  
  
Yet, the couple in front of her had a future, the one she had been denied and that had cruelly been taken away from Gabriel. and she could almost see the couple in front of her, turned grey haired, yet still in each other’s arms in Chris's ancestral home in Mojave. 

  


She almost sighed but smiled when Chris looked back at her, raising her glass at them, silently giving her blessings.  
Number One risked a look at her and Kat couldn't help but give a mischievous wink, probably Gabriel's reaction, on his behalf. 

  


Kat slowly excused herself to her quarters, her work here was done. Glancing back down the almost empty corridor, seeing the command couple leaving as well , hand in hand, she walked in the opposite direction, to her lonely abode, and the pain of unfulfilled promises and missed chances covered her like a shroud.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I started writing this fic weeks ago. Then Icecream-Junkie kindly betaed this but I was too lazy to edit and post this. Never thought I'd post this when we all had to grieve together for our dear Admiral. *sobs*  
> Any mistake is mine.


End file.
